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Monday, May 11, 2015

Buhari: How we will revamp our economy

The President-elect, Maj General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has given insight into how the incoming administration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) plans to deal with the many economic challenges confronting the country when it assumes office on May 29.

Buhari while lamenting the downturn in the oil market and the continued loss of more than 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily through alleged official connivance, said the new administration would focus attention on agriculture and solid mineral development as alternative sources of generating revenue for the country.

"In the economy, we have to quickly turn to agriculture and mining because that is where you can do the quickest work and earn results. In other areas, you need to study them and dust all the books and studies and get people, experienced people, committed people and technocrats to come and help the government and identify priorities so that with what is available to us, we can quickly make our people realise their hope for the government they have chosen," he said.

He asked for understanding by Nigerians to enable him and his team wriggle out of the inherited problems, adding that there is need to first tackle insecurity and unemployment in the country before anything can be put in place including stabilising the economy.

"We picked three fundamental problems. The first is security. The country has to be secured before anything can be put in place and then the economy. The fact is that more than 60 per cent of the Nigerian population are youths and most of them, whether they have been to school or not are unemployed and this is the biggest danger if we don't know it.

"So, there must be jobs for these people as quickly as possible for us to even enjoy the relative peace. So, security, getting job for these people and putting the infrastructure in place especially power is vital," he said.

"You can imagine what is happening in the high sea where up to 400,000 barrel of crude oil which we rely on is stolen everyday with the full cooperation of those who are supposed to protect it.

"What you will do now, you represent the whole north, the biggest message is to try and persuade people that it is not possible to change the state of affairs overnight, it took 16 years and for those 16 years you also know more than myself that Nigeria earned revenue more than two times what it earned from 1914 till then but you know we used to have Nigeria Airways, Nigeria Railways and others but where are they now? Where are the infrastructure? That is how technically the PDP has dealt with Nigeria in the last 16 years.

"The fuel price has gone down and 90 per cent of foreign exchange we rely on come from that. So, you have to convince your constituencies that you have virtually arrived at the wrong time and that they have to temper their expectation with some justice towards the leadership. I think whatever has to be deployed especially in the churches and mosques, this is the quickest way to communicate this to the ordinary people", He said.